Is it possible to drop workspace, but keep the same account running for your android account? Or still log in with the same account (I guess downgraded to a non-paid account) for sheets etc?

IIRC you can still log into a lapsed Workspace account, but the core "business" products like Gmail, Docs and Meet are completely disabled until you reactivate your subscription. The rest of Google still works to the extent that it ever did under the weird Workspace limitations.

You cannot migrate a Workspace account into a regular Google account, you're stuck with Workspace forever unless you start over on a brand new account.

I honestly believe that last point is the reason people still have their free grand-parented in workspace accounts. Google went to close them down realized they didn't have a graceful way to let people keep their paid for apps and realized the engineering time to create a workspace to consumer migration was worth much more than any costs associated with those accounts.

This is a super annoying quirk, lots of things don't work well if you're using workspace as a normal gmail account, and they don't quite warn you up front.

Google converted my mum's Gmail account to a workspace account automatically. Now she can't use her bedroom alarm clock because it's connected to my dad's Gmail account and you can't share access to workspace accounts. It's stupidly maddening.

And yes I realise that an IoT alarm clock is ridiculous, but that's not the point.

It was a proper Gmail account? Or was it an email@domain account that maybe was using her work email address?

I’m asking because I used to work adjacent to this area, and I know of only a few scenarios where an account becomes a workspace account after being a consumer account.

Off topic a bit: Facebook just converted my personal account to a professional account. I have no idea why. Although as I think about it for a moment, it might be related to the fact that I visit/use Facebook less than once a year....

It's pretty much my #1 example of Google's propensity for shipping its org chart.

Workspace accounts come with their own compliance requirements and edge cases that products need to handle, but rather than do that and provide a consistent user experience most product teams don't answer to the relevant PAs and so don't care, and Workspace accounts are a small enough minority of users that nobody has to care.

I've often railed against a particular way of doing product that's really common in our industry, but I suppose it's been a while so I'll do it again:

We have a real problem with metrics-driven product development, where we exclusively care about the 95% use case and actively disdain the 5% use cases.

On paper it makes sense - you direct your energies towards the highest-payback activities. But the problem is that every user falls into some 5% use cases, so a product that is purely made up of 95% use cases ends up becoming a patchwork that is frustrating to every user, somehow.

Rather than "product works great for 95% of users" you get "100% of users cut themselves on some corner of the product".

What alternative to metrics-driven product development would you suggest?

Humane development Metrics are great, but they aren't humane - there's no single human behind the metrics.

It has been said, a typical MS Office user only uses x% of the features of the software, but every one of those millions of users uses a different x%

I had to admin Google Workspace maybe 9-10 years ago. It was rough but I thought they'd beep refining it. I'm back in a company using GW and I swear to god it's gotten worse. The basic features that simple don't exist are boggling. It is not a serious product and I feel bad for companies that have to use it. I've been here three months and I'm already planning our migration away.

What are you planning to migrate to?

O365. For what this company does it's great. Intune/autopilot alone is a huge labor saver.

It's a completely avoidable situation too, there's nothing stopping them from offering custom domains as a perk of paid Google One plans for regular Google accounts. Workspace is beyond overkill for individuals, you shouldn't need all that complexity just to attach a custom domain to a personal Gmail account.

I tried Proton and my test emails couldn’t even get through that I sent myself. Kept going to spam instantly. The big providers have us in a stranglehold here.

Did you set up the SPF/DMARC/DKIM authentication records on your domain? Those can make a huge difference to deliverability.

I don’t have a domain. It was Proton emails going straight to Gmail spam. I absurdly have even had similar issues on fresh virgin iCloud email accounts going straight to spam in Gmail.

If all your domain email DNS records (security) are correctly set, you should be fine.

"a good chunk of features across all Google products simply didn't work with Workspace accounts"

Hugely frustrating - they penalize their paying customers. Can't attach Nest devices, can't use the YouTube family plan.

I have this annoying problem. When not plugged into my car I can say

"Hey google remind me to call in sick tomorrow"

and it will put an entry into the calendar for me.

But if it is plugged into my car the same request will elicit an

"I'm sorry please talk to your system administrator to get this feature enabled"

This has gone on for years with google assistant and workspace accounts. There is always some random interlock in some byzantine permissions table that get's triggered at the most inconvenient moment and you can't do what yesterday you could do.